SEAN Dyche has told his board that we need to spend more money to bolster the squad and I have to say I completely agree with him, writes Willie Irvine.

The nucleus of the squad are the survivors from the team that was relegated from the Premier League two years ago, so I think we need some new additions to improve that squad.

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Those players will have learnt and improved from that experience two years ago, and there are a couple of new faces in such as Andre Gray, but we still need more.

Last week we saw the double signing of Charlton pair Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Nick Pope for a combined fee of around £3.6million and they are welcome additions.

Now we need the board to listen to the manager and get the players he has targeted into the club to help in the battle to survive in the top flight - and I’m sure Sean would like them in as soon as possible.

The key area is obviously central midfield and someone to replace Joey Barton, who we will come face-to-face with on Saturday in a friendly at Ibrox against Rangers. Joey did a fantastic job for Burnley and I wish him every success in Scotland, but now we need some new faces in the middle of the pitch.

I am glad the manager has recognised that his signings have to be of a certain quality to help us in the Premier League and that usually means they don’t come cheap. Signing Paul Pogba would be nice, that would make the headlines, but I don’t think Sean is quite competing in that market unfortunately.

Some more good news came out last week with Tom Heaton signing a new contract to keep him at the club until 2020. It’s great to see Tom’s loyalty, he is such an important part of the squad now and a great captain.

It was a good win at Bradford on Saturday and it was great to see Gray get a couple more goals. It never hurts to be scoring goals in pre-season, it’s a good feeling whenever you find the back of the net.

I had a few good pre-seasons myself in front of goal and you do take great confidence into the season.

Finally I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the readers of my weekly column in what is my last for the Lancashire Telegraph.

It’s been a pleasure to speak to people who have read my column and stopped me in the streets to talk about the stories I’ve told.

I have enjoyed writing for all the Burnley fans and I hope you’ve enjoyed my opinions.

I can’t wait for the season ahead now and I’ve got every confidence that Burnley will get the job done and stay up this time.